Sharing memories with the congregation moments before his late uncle’s funeral Mass began, Jacob Spehar said Father Jeffrey Huard’s death seemed to come early at age 68, but “I also know he left nothing behind.”

“What an incredible gift he was to me and to our family,” said Spehar, a member of St. Bridget of Sweden in Lindstrom. “There were the times we would eat an entire bag of pistachios together, or watch the movie ‘Top Gun,’” and find that neither of them had drawn breath during a fight scene, Spehar said.

“He was a gift also in the big moments: weddings, baptisms and funerals. He was such a rock in those moments,” giving his all to those around him, Spehar said.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda presided at the Nov. 25 Mass at St. John Neumann in Eagan, and concelebrants included Bishops Andrew Cozzens of Crookston; Donald DeGrood of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Bishop Emeritus John LeVoir of New Ulm. Concelebrants also included priests from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and elsewhere.

Family and friends were in the congregation, as were religious sisters and others in consecrated life, and faculty and seminarians from The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, where Father Huard was a spiritual director when he died Nov. 17.

Father Huard was born in Duluth, attended The St. Paul Seminary and was ordained a priest of the archdiocese in 1994. Before entering the seminary, he spent several years in London expanding international Christian outreach programs. He reached many people as a disciple of Christ, a priest, a spiritual director, a family member and a community builder, those who knew him said.

Archbishop Hebda noted Father Huard’s missionary travels. “Yet God sent him to our Church, here,” the archbishop said with gratitude. Today, “we remember the life of a really fine priest.”

Father Huard was parochial vicar of All Saints in Lakeville from 1994 to 1997; chaplain of the Community of Christ the Redeemer in West St. Paul for years; director of campus ministry at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul from 1999 to 2007 and pastor of St. Mark in St. Paul from 2007 to 2009. He was a founding member and for about a decade was the moderator of the Companions of Christ priestly fraternity association.

Director of spiritual formation at The St. Paul Seminary from 2009 to 2021, Father Huard continued to serve seminarians in regular spiritual direction until his death.

Father Joseph Taphorn, rector of the seminary, said before the funeral that Father Huard did a great deal for the seminary and surrounding community.

“He served as a spiritual father for hundreds of seminarians and priests and was a faithful shepherd to many souls throughout his ministry,” Father Taphorn said.

Ed Gross, senior coordinator of Community of Christ the Redeemer and a member of the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, said Father Huard was chaplain for 27 years for the Catholic lay association and left that role only last year. “He was our chaplain and our friend,” Gross said. “The pull to community was very strong in Father Huard. He never lost connection with the charisms of the Holy Spirit, and of brothers and sisters in Christ.”

Father Huard was a founding member of Companions of Christ, which developed out of the Christ the Redeemer community in 1992. Father Peter Williams, pastor of St. Ambrose in Woodbury and the current moderator, said Father Huard was a pillar of the association.

“He gave his heart (and) soul to Christ,” said Father Williams said, adding that as moderator he was blessed to preach at the Nov. 24 visitation and vespers for Father Huard.

Lisa Reichelt, sister to Father Huard’s brother-in-law Mike Rockwood, said after the funeral that she had known Father Huard since he was 17. They shared their faith journey at times in their late teens to early 20s, and she was a member of All Saints when Father Huard was parochial vicar there.

“It was a joy for me to have a familiar face” and see him in action as a priest, said Reichelt, who now lives in the Duluth diocese and attends Sacred Heart in Hackensack. “He exuded joy and always had a heart for God.”

LeAnn Steffl, a longtime member of All Saints, said she remembers Father Huard well, particularly his homilies, which were “endearing and honest and with a hint of humor.”

Father Huard often reflected on family and faith, which helped her as a mother of two young girls at the time, and he “let us into the Huard family,” said Steffl, now finance department assistant at the parish. “He told us about his siblings and his nieces and nephews. You could see on his face that he was so proud of his family.”

“Through the time he was here, we saw a priest who loved Jesus, family and the people he served, in that order,” she said.

In his travels from London, Father Huard met Father Tony O’Neill, pastor of St. John Neumann, in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1982, when Father O’Neill was 18. Father O’Neill, also a member of Companions of Christ, said the homily for his friend.

“We are here to grieve together,” Father O’Neill said. At the same time, “we are being invited to an encounter with Christ and to be transformed by his love. We are not made for time, but for eternity.”

Father O’Neill recalled with humor what became known as Father Huard’s “Huardisms,” or wordplay that was illuminating, humorous or both, with seminarians marking one for each day of the year. “I believe they were in the middle of October” in their compilation, Father O’Neill said, citing with fondness one Huardism: “‘Don’t correct me if you know what I mean.’”

“It’s right we honor him,” Father O’Neill said. “The greatest gift is to try to be like him, in his virtue, his kindness and his love.”